Kevin Connor was born in Sydney in 1932. In 1947 he was apprenticed in commercial art, and attended night classes in drawing and painting at East Sydney Technical College in 1947-48. Connor has travelled extensively. From 1953 to 1957 he lived in England and visited North America, and from 1965 to 1966 travelled in Europe and lived in Spain. In 1966 he was awarded the Harkness Fellowship and lived in New York until 1968. From 1976 until 1987 he was a lecturer in painting and drawing at the National Art School and City Art Institute, Sydney. Since 1962 he has had over fifty solo exhibitions in Australia and overseas, including a retrospective in 1989 at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, and has been included in numerous group exhibitions. He has received several major prizes and awards, including the Archibald Prize in 1975 and 1977, the Sulman Prize in 1991 and 1997, and the Dobell Drawing Prize in 1992. Kevin Connor lives in Sydney.